


Ships In The Night

by MintSauce



Series: The Halfway House [19]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3759895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintSauce/pseuds/MintSauce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She just keeps watching Ian pass her by and lets herself pretend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ships In The Night

**Author's Note:**

> Guess what song I was listening to when I wrote this.
> 
> This one is just a short fic from Fiona's PoV so that the multi-chap coming next makes more sense. I call it a multi-chap.... it could have just been one long fic really. But then, coudn't all fics?

It’s not exactly like before. It isn’t spotting him from across the street in the dead of winter.

            No, instead they’re in a restaurant. Well, she is. Gus is there, her husband of two weeks. They’re already going out to dinners like this one to find each other again, like they ever even knew each other in the first place.

            There’s a store opposite, just your standard liquor shop.

            She’s facing the window, spots them easily through the glass in a lull in conversation between her and Gus. She’d been people watching, imagining all these people with better lives she would never get to live.

            Ian emerges first, his hair longer than when she’d last seen him, resting in its natural curls on top of his head. They’re obviously having something of a lazy day judging by the low slung sweat pants and the large hoodie that Ian’s dressed in.

            Just the sight of his hair like that, messy and a horrible mixture of tight and loose curls makes her think of him when he was small, asking her to shave his head because he was sick of getting teased for his hair.

            That hair plus his freckles and sensitivity had never lead to anything good. He’d been easy bait in the Southside schools at that age.

            Mickey follows him out of the shop, because of course where Ian is, Mickey always goes. He’s grinning, laughing at something and when he smiles like that, Fiona can understand why he’s so attractive to Ian.

            Sure, there’s a rough edge to Mickey, but he looks softer when he smiles.

            They both look happy and it hurts.

            Mickey is swinging a bag down by his side, she can imagine the beer bottles clinking together. He strains up on his toes, ruffles a hand through Ian’s curls. He laughs again, but it doesn’t seem to be at Ian’s hair. If anything, the expression on his face is astounded.

            She can imagine the conversation they probably had. Ian trying to style his hair as usual and Mickey insisting he just stops, that on their lazy days like this he lets it remain loose, natural.

            Of course, she doesn’t have a clue how they speak to each other, but she could imagine it sometimes went something like that.

            Or maybe Ian just ran out of product and Mickey was only just realising he liked it. She couldn’t tell. She wishes she could.

            Ian slings an arm around Mickey’s shoulders loosely and she’s amazed when the shorter man doesn’t just shrug him off. Instead he leans into him, says something that has Ian throwing his head back and letting out a loud laugh.

            She can’t hear it through the glass, through the traffic on the other side and all the other people, but suddenly she wishes she could more than she’s ever wished for anything else.

            “What are you looking at?” Gus asks her, twisting in his seat.

            “My brother,” she blurts out, still staring at Ian. “The redhead.”

            She suddenly wants him to know, wants him to see the wondrous thing that is her baby brother. She wants to share the weight of this moment, of seeing him again after what feels like a lifetime. She may feel like miles away from Ian right now, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still want to pretend like they’re closer.

            “I didn’t know you had another brother,” Gus says, watching her watch Ian.

            She shrugs. “His name’s Ian.”

            “Do you want to go say hello?”

            “No.” She shakes her head. She doesn’t want to ruin this with reality. She doesn’t want to run across that street, burst the bubble that Ian is in with Mickey and make him hate her even more, all over again.

            She just wants to let him pass her by and pretend like this is nothing more than an unfortunately missed moment. Like two ships in the night. She’ll find him eventually though, because that’s what Fiona does. She pieces her family back together even though they may not realise she’s doing it. She works behind the scenes, restores what needs to be restored.

            She’ll fix this rift with Ian and if she can’t, well then she’ll learn how to jump it.

            “Okay,” Gus says and it’s that easy-going nature that she fell in love with. Or at least thought she was in love with when she agreed to marry him. Maybe it was just infatuation. She doesn’t know and she’s not ready to work it out yet.

            She’s happy to pretend with Ian in this moment, even if he doesn’t know it.

            And she’s happy to keep pretending in this marriage with Gus, just for a little bit longer and if only because she doesn’t quite know what else to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Come play with me: [themintsauce](http://themintsauce.tumblr.com) or I'm @BethCottrell on Twitter! :D


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